pics nao!
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Youāre not going to like the modifications I made: being a girl and all, I needed the brakes at a more reachable position; also, seat change (still not right), and the first thing I did ā decades ago ā after the first couple of weekend trips was TAKE THE DAMNED ORIGINAL PEDALS OFF. They had the lock-in for the specific shoes, which made me feel trapped.
Iāll try to get the thing out of the basement and into the sunlight so I can take a photo for you. Itās similar (identical?) to:
Oh, yeah, and I changed the tires from the kind that glued in place with no inner tube to ānormalā tires. Iām no longer biking in packs with enthusiasts, so I donāt want to deal with bringing all the special tools, etc., just in case, when all Iām doing is biking along the lakefront.
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Thatās a lovely ride. I very much like the color.
That said, it doesnāt have most of the attributes mentioned above as negatives.
For example, āstem mounted shiftersā look like this:
And āsuicide leversā look like this:
And ācenter pull brakesā look like this:
And while there were some high-end center pull brakes made, the VAST majority of those you see in the wild are junk.
Your bike has downtube shifters, side pull brakes, and regular brake levers. A totally lovely and traditional setup.
BTW, if youāve got the handlebars and brake levers rotated up that much for comfort, itās likely a sign that the bike is too long across the top for you- women tend to have shorter upper bodies at a given height compared to males, so they often need bikes that have a shorter reach from seat to handlebar. A shorter (maybe higher rise, too?) stem might help with that (and allow you to not risk rolling your pelvis forward to reach, which is deeply uncomfortable. Thatās also slightly more seat post showing on the bike than āoptimal.ā Under some circumstances, that might be an indicator that the frame is too small, but given that the top is already (maybe) too long, Iād leave that as-is and swap the stem to a shorter and taller one (to help get the bars up closer to the height of the seat).
Of course, if itās working for you thereās no reason to fix what isnāt broken. And Iāve made a number of small assumptions, so if Iāve erred, I apologize. I donāt mean to get all pedantic or intrusive.
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Counter steering is a thing, but itās most noticeable if you assume youāre steering with the handlebars first and the center of mass of the bike moves in response to that. Thatās not always the case.
Indeed, especially for mountain bikes, much of the steering is done with the hips/weight of the rider, and the handlebars move in response to that- the opposite of whatās being shown here. If the rider moves their center of mass first, the bars move in response and the change in direction happens. Itās part of the reason you teach riders to look where they want to go, as they tend to move their mass in that direction, which makes the bike feel as though itās steering itself (instead of the bike feeling like itās fighting you, as in the video above).
Apparently Iāve slipped into pedantic mode.
Sorry.
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No problem. It wasnāt till I started on motorcycles that I realized I was doing it almost by instinct.
Motorcycles are too heavy to respond the riders own weight shifting (the beast I ride is like 400lbs dry) so you have to countersteer it.
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I used to have a Kalkhoff (Concorde?) with many of those things. Something like this?
I remember the shifter being down on the frame like that. And the terrible brakes.
Still liked it a lot, though. Much better than the Grifter it replaced.
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When I first stared racing (and riding, for that matter) road bikes, down tube shifters were state-of-the-art. If you were really swanky, you had the newfangled indexed shifting- that was the hot stuff.
The brakes of that era (even, for the most part, the āgood onesā) were pretty sketchy by modern standards. Iām used to being able to stand my mountain bike up on the front wheel whenever I want with a single left index finger, so the idea of needing multiple fingers to slow a bike down- yeah, not so much.
The first road bike I got that had double pivot brakes was pretty nuts by comparison- all the brake I ever needed to reign in even pretty irresponsible speeds. The confidence that inspired changed the way I rode.
And thatās how tech in bikes works, I suppose- we re-define whatās acceptable via our current frame of reference. When single pivot brakes were top-end, that level of braking was great. Until dual pivot came out, and then that was the new standard. Then disc brakes. Etc.
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thank you for writing what I was going to write, plus great advice vis-a-vis the stemāwell spotted. except she said this wasnāt her bike, just an internet photo of the same model.
@anon67050589 I was a bit skeptical that a Cannondale would come with any of the components I listed, and itās true. as nothingfuture says, your bike has good stuff and is awesome. the pics he posted are what I was referencing. @TooGoodToCheck_ the pics in nothingfutureās post are some easy tells that indicate overall low-tier quality. again, they might be an ok option for price point/used availability, but thereās a lot of better used bikes out there usually around the same price.
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Iām pretty jealous. Your bike is awesome. 
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Just switched the tyres on my zombie bike. It handles much better and I probably wonāt need to replace it for the foreseeable future. Dammit.
On the positive side, itās actually running pretty well now that a lot of the parts have been changed. I may just buy a touring bike when I can afford it and keep this one as a beast of burden.
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Hey wow, it came with tubulars (AKA sew-ups, AKA singles here in Oz), thatās pretty sick. Pro-level stuff. The bike must have some nice gear on itā¦ 600? Dura-Ace, even?
BTW, you wouldāve had to change the wheels as well (or at least the rims) to fit clinchers (normal tyres).
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I grew up riding tubulars. Theyāre awesome, except for dealing with every aspect of them.
Heck, Iāve had the (rare) joy of repairing a tubular tire- re-stitching and all. Iāve even had a section of the basement set up for aging the tires (as they used to need substantial stretching and aging before use). Like a wine cellar.
Needless to say, all my bikes ride clinchers now (minus one mtb that uses tubeless tires).
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Sorry, itās been a busy weekend. I will post a photo at some point, just for the curious, but the details of the bike ā original and current ā seem to have been pretty well hashed out by everyone here already!
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thatās using your head
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Itās apparently non-trivial to find slick tires for 26 x 1.95 wheels but Iāve got it narrowed down to some Kendas which should do the trick. Once my new debit card comes in.
Also, it appears that my Mongoose is a āwalgooseā even though I bought it at a sporting goods store. 
Given the fact that I canāt buy another bike right now, anything I should be doing maintenance wise for my bike since itās been sitting unused for a few years? 
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Chain lube. Thatās mostly it, assuming it hasnāt been stored outside.
Shouldnāt be that hard to find 26 x 1.95 slicks (or near slicksā¦). I have a set of Kenda K-Rads in nearly that size- theyāre fantastic on pavement. Werenāt too expensive as I recall, either.
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Iām assuming part of the problem is window shopping on the big orange site with the A. Once variables are involved, it gets messy. Here are 900 results that are almostābut not quiteāwhat you wanted.
Itās been kept in a shed. Technically dry but more exposed to temperatures than it should likely be. 
Anything I should be looking for in chain lube? Iām seeing lube for MTB and for commuter bikes and Iām starting to think either it doesnāt matter much or that thereās a huge difference in types and brands? 
Donāt use a wax-based ādryā lube, theyāre crap. You can use just about any oil, but something designed for bike chains lasts a lot better. I prefer something on the heavier side, lasts longer and runs quieter. If you can find it, Chain-L #5.
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Yeah, back in the early 90s when I started getting into road bikes, I had a half-decent 27" machine I was pimping upā¦ I wanted to put some 700c wheels on it, but I was a little clueless - I managed to buy singles instead. If they were advertised as tubulars or sew-ups, I might have realised.
Anyway, these wheels were sweet. 600 hubs, double-butted spokes, light-arse rimsā¦ Putting em on the bike straight after taking off the old 27x1. 25 crap was like night and day; the most dramatic difference any single change Iāve ever made to a bike has made.
But yeah, PITA city. I never learned the arcane arts of sew-up repair, so every time I got a puncture, it was off to the shop to cough up $25 for another second-hand tyreā¦ Almost worth it though.
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From the 80ās on, high thread count kevlar bead clinchers have been giving sew-ups a run for their money.
